Shepard's Last Requests
by amaven
Summary: As Shepard and her team are heading to their suicide mission she tries, once again, to warn the galaxy of the incoming Reaper threat. And Kaiden is left waiting to see if she survives. T for language.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's note, not important to read** I started working on a FF following Mass Effect, the original game. It's such a huge story to tell, it would be hundreds of pages that I could barely sit through writing and doubted anyone would want to sit through reading. Now that ME2 is out I'm actually starting it again (I just never learn) and starting from scratch on top of that. How messed up is that? I don't think I'll ever finish it, and if I do editing it might kill me. Anyways, while Mass Effect is a great series, I was disappointed in the romantic storylines that carried over to ME2. I went back to the Citadel like 4 times looking for Kaiden my first play through trying to do something. Then I just hooked up w/ Thane (such an adorable alien). Anyways (again), since writing a ME1 to ME2 FF will probably not happen, I decided since Shepard isn't getting lucky before her suicide mission this time she might as well do something productive with her time. This originally was going to be a one-shot so if you read just the first chapter you can still get the effect of that. But it's still short, only 4 chapters, all of which I wrote and proofread instead of sleeping (proofread once, good enough).

***NOTE*** Female Shepard, mostly paragon but a potty mouth. Her name is Andromeda Shepard, called Andy occasionally. Story starts as the team is heading to the suicide mission. If you haven't played the game there are some spoilers, but half the story isn't even on the Normandy. Also if you haven't played the game, I'm afraid it may not make much sense. Thanks for reading, please review.

**Chapter 1**

"Setting course for the Omega 4 Relay, ETA 2 hours," Joker announced.

With the crew gone the ship was completely silent, and after that announcement she would have assumed even with the crew there it would have gone silent.

"Two hours, Commander…I'll keep you informed if anything changes," Miranda said. "Commander…I'm sorry if you…if I pressured you into this…"

"No, you didn't," Shepard assured her. "I knew…the moment we heard this was what we were going to do. Just wish that…" Shepard sighed and shook her head.

"I understand…things you were hoping to get done before…" Miranda didn't want to say it. Before they died.

"If there is any chance to save our crew, we're taking it," Shepard said firmly. "No one is left behind. Not without a fight."

Shepard sat in her cabin in front of her terminal, her heart steady but pounding hard against her chest. If they survived just passing through the Relay, they had a shot. But once through that Relay they weren't going to get any messages through. She only had this short time to organize everything she had uncovered since being woken up after a two-year coma. And she couldn't do it alone, or in less than two hours.

"Tali and Legion to my cabin," she ordered.

Legion arrived first, and waited patiently for Tali.

"Legion, your people need to send a representative to contact the Migrant Fleet and arrange for peace," Shepard said.

"Shepard…" Tali started.

"And you need to get a message to someone you trust there to accept it. Beg, if you must," Shepard said seriously. "Geth can be a very valuable ally against the Reapers. And, let's face it, if the Quarians can find a peaceful way to settle their differences you may be able to find what you both want. Geth, the ability to be left alone to develop as you want to. And Quarians, a home world safe from geth retaliation. Legion?"

"I will send this request if Creator Tali'Zorah can send the same request."

"Tali?" Shepard looked up at her.

"I know you are right, Shepard. But…convincing the Admirals…I don't know."

"Work together, do what you can," Shepard said.

Alone again, she continued working on a message for Liara.

'Liara, I know you have a lot to do…and I'm sorry to add this to it. While on Illium there was an asari, and I regret that I didn't get her name. Pale blue, white facial tattoos. I don't know if she is still there, but if you can find her I need to get a message to her. She is working for the friend we made on Noveria, remember…the one we helped escape? They are doing well, but I'm afraid they may need to make their presence known as an ally is coming quickly. I want them to make steps to find peaceful relations with the Council. Peaceful, but cautious. Thank you.'

She read over it once, positive that Liara would know she was talking about the Rachni queen, and sent the message.

She checked her time, forty-five minutes gone.

'Wrex, I hope your work is still going well. Your people will need to be strong, all of our people will need to be strong. Even if I don't fail, the threat isn't going to end. You can, without a doubt, promise your people the fight of their lives soon. I know it goes against your culture, but try to convince them that there are some fights worth waiting for and dying for. This is going to be one of them. Warn them, and try to reach out peacefully to the Council.'

She sat back, that had taken only a few minutes. "EDI?"

"Yes, Shepard?" EDI's hologram popped up.

"All data from our missions, all reports, I need them packaged and encrypted ASAP," Shepard said.

There were a few moments, and then EDI said, "Prepared and sent to your terminal, Commander. You may enter a chosen password to decrypt the files."

"Thank you, EDI," Shepard said, and EDI vanished from sight, but she was still there.

Shepard entered in a password, and attached the file to prepare a message.

'Councilor Anderson, I apologize for my words the last time we met. I hope you know that I have always looked up to you, and trusted you. I know your hands are tied. I hope you also know that my hands weren't tied, and the choice I made wasn't an easy one. I'm sending you, not the Council but you my friend, this information. It may be from Cerberus, but it is also from me. We investigated a Collector ship and a Reaper ship. That's not even half of what I've been up to, but this is valuable. I trust you to get this information into the right hands for preparation. And I've asked a few potential allies to contact the Council, extend talks of peace. Do what you can. Take care, Cap.'

She sent it without reading over it again, the pressure of the time restraint making her anxious. Decrypting something that came from EDI would take years without a password, but Anderson would know if she sent something protected that it would be something he could guess. Not too obvious, but not too complex. He'd eventually crack it.

Only half an hour left, and she looked through her messages until she found the one she wanted to read again, for the hundredth time.

'Shepard, I'm sorry for what I said back on Horizon. I spent two years pulling myself back together after you went down with the Normandy. It took me a long time to get over my guilt for surviving and move on, I'd finally let my friends talk me into going out for drinks with a doctor on the Citadel. Nothing serious, but trying to let myself have a life again, you know? Then I saw you, and everything pulled hard to port. You were standing in front of me, but you were with Cerberus. I guess I really don't know who either of us is anymore. Do you even remember that night before Ilos? That night meant everything to me…maybe it meant as much to you. But a lot has changed in the last two years and I can't just put that aside. But please be careful. I've watched too many people close to me die-on Eden Prime, on Virmire, on Horizon, on the Normandy. I couldn't bear it if I lost you again. If you're still the woman I remember, I know you'll find a way to stop these Collector attacks. But Cerberus is too dangerous to be trusted. Watch yourself. When things have settled down a little…maybe…I don't know. Just take care. Kaiden.'

She smiled, even writing a message it seemed to take him forever to reach his point. Twenty-five minutes.

'Kaiden, I wish things weren't like this. I wish I could have found the words weeks ago to write back to you, but my brain has been battling my heart. I would rather be back in the Blitz than have to be writing to you like this. A few days after I woke up I went to Anderson, and I asked him about you. He wouldn't tell me how to contact you. And I had my team and my head reminding me that you had two years to move on, that I should let you be.' She paused in her writing, her finger hovering over delete as her eye watched the clock. Fifteen minutes. She continued, more quickly before she lost time and her nerve. 'We always knew we could lose the other in battle in the blink of an eye, and I'm sorry that you were the one who was left alone. I don't envy you that. My death wasn't pleasant, but I didn't have the heartache of losing someone I loved. It's okay if you moved on, beyond me. You are alive, and you are a good man. You deserve it.'

"Commander! Ten minutes out!" Joker announced.

She looked at the message, could she really do this to him again? Tell him she loved him and then die again? Reach out to him only to vanish from the galaxy again? She sent the message without finishing it, before she could change her mind or add anything else.

She pushed it out of her mind, focusing on the mission. If they survived passing through the Relay they had to find the Collectors, find the ship that abducted their crew and save them if it was possible. There was so much unknown that everything else would just be made up as they went along, not how she liked to go in but it hadn't stopped her before.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Kaiden entered his apartment on the Citadel, fairly nice one in the Presidium, comfortably small. He actually inherited the apartment from Council Anderson when he moved. The rent was a bit more than he wanted to pay, but it meant he had a private place instead of staying at an Alliance station when he was on leave. After that mess on Horizon they were threatening to ground him, like they had to the rest of the original Normandy crew. His friend had joked that if the Alliance screwed him over at least he knew someone in Cerberus would take him in. Kaiden hadn't found that humorous.

He had tried, and failed, to convince his superiors that Cerberus didn't appear to be working for the Collectors, since they had helped repel the attack. But since Shepard and her crew hightailed it out of there before any Alliance reinforcements came it looked shady. She was on the verge of being declared a traitor and being arrested.

His terminal was showing a new message, and he grimaced. He'd been waiting for news from the Alliance on when his leave would be over, they must have decided what to do with him. A lot of good soldiers got stuck pushing papers, and he wasn't ready for that to be his fate. What good was it being a biotic when all you did was paperwork?

He fell into his chair and opened the terminal, preparing himself for the worst. He opened the new message without even pausing to look at who it was from, but when he realized it wasn't from the Alliance his mouth went dry.

It had been nearly a month since Horizon and the message he had sent to Shepard. He had, for the week after that, checked his terminal several times a day waiting for something, anything, until he had finally given up. He read the message so fast he missed most of it, and read through it several times until he was sure every word had been clearly read.

He felt strange, almost light, as he tried to read between the lines. Something was wrong with the message, the tone of it. Maybe it was just his own head obscuring it, but something didn't feel right.

_She cared enough to send this, even after all this time,_ he thought. _But why now? What does she mean that she didn't want to have to write like that?_

"Damn you, Shepard," he muttered, getting up from his chair and running out of his apartment.

Councilor Anderson had gotten the message seconds after it was sent, pure luck that he was sitting at his desk when it came in. He had already tried dozens of passwords to unlock the information she had sent, and had sent Ambassador Udina in his place for his afternoon meetings so he could continue working on it.

His assistant notified him that Commander Alenko was requesting an audience with him, and he paused in his work. "Let him in," he said.

He didn't stand when Alenko stepped in, just motioned for him to have a chair. "You stopped Andy from contacting me when she came to see you," he accused.

Anderson frowned and nodded, "We both have our suspicions about Cerberus, and your mission had to stay classified, especially from them. She understood…did she contact you?"

Alenko nodded, "Yeah, I just got a message from her."

Anderson let out a breath and looked at his terminal, "I'm working on something, Alenko. I need help. Help from someone who knows Shepard better than I do."

"What do you need?" he asked.

Anderson showed him the message. "Its password protected. She sent it to me, something she thought I would guess but so far I've been dumbfounded."

"In preparation…" Alenko muttered, "That doesn't sound good."

Anderson nodded, "My mind is going same place yours is. Reaper invasion. But until I get this damn file open I don't know."

"Why send this over the extranet, where anything can be picked up, instead of coming here to hand it to you?" Alenko asked, and felt his body go cold.

Anderson's thoughts followed his, "She doesn't think she'll make it back to the Citadel. She wanted to make sure Cerberus wasn't holding all the cards if she wasn't there."

They brainstormed over the next few hours. Trying team member names, names of ships she served on, that Anderson served on, planets she visited, codenames for top secret missions, but they didn't get through.

"Maybe we're thinking to hard about it," Alenko said, sitting at the Councilor's desk with his feet propped up. "She sent this to you, it has to be something you know. Probably something few other people know. Maybe it's something that doesn't even deal with the Alliance."

Anderson frowned and shook his head, "I consider Shepard a friend but we were never really social. Has to be something…" he's face slackened slightly, "No, it has to do with the Alliance. I'm so foolish, I should have thought of it immediately."

"What?" Alenko asked, ready to put it into the terminal.

"Special Forces training. She was so damn proud of that N7 when she graduated. Not smug about it, just proud as hell," he grinned. "That's the one thing we had in common, we survived that damn training."

"N7 doesn't work," Alenko said, trying it.

"That would be too simple," he said, standing up and pacing. Something was there, years ago. It was in the back of his mind, hiding from him, but he would find it. He would draw it out and snatch it. "Guerrilla."

"Gorilla," Alenko muttered, "Like…ape?"

"No," Anderson said, and spelled it out for him. "Guerrilla warfare. It was a term used for small groups of combatants, years ago on Earth. They used special forces, military tactics and small teams to combat much larger forces. It fell out of use sometime in the earth twenty-first century, and was usually used by civilians fighting their governments. Guerrillas aren't heroes, usually considered terrorists. But some fought for the right cause, fought for their people when their government abandoned them. N7 training is more than just learning how to shoot straight, we learned military tactics from all times in history."

Alenko's feet dropped from the desk, "That's it!"

There were thousands of pages of data, starting right at the beginning of Freedom's Progress.

"Go to the last, the end," Alenko said.

Final mission report was filed by Joker. Describing how the Normandy had been ambushed by Collectors while the ground team was gone. It was omitted how he was able to retake control of the ship (EDI had omitted her presence in most of the reports, the Alliance and Council did not need to know that an AI had been created and was being used), but that the last order given by Commander Shepard was to plot a course for the Omega 4 Relay.

"There is a scan on the Reaper IFF, we can replicate it and go in after her," Alenko said.

"Not in time," Anderson muttered. "They would have hit that relay hours ago when we were still sitting on our thumbs trying to figure this out."

Alenko put his hand to his forehead, "How will we know what to do next? If she makes it or not?"

Anderson shook his head, "Even decrypted this is going to take days to go over. Even if everything was perfect, I don't think we'd be ready for an invasion. Make yourself a copy, keep it safe. Don't do anything rash, though. If we have any chance, we're going to need to understand and verify every piece of this information before deciding what to do with it."

Kaiden walked slowly down the Presidium, making his way to the Wards. He tried to imagine what she was up to at that moment. If she didn't make it through the Relay he could picture the Normandy twisted and crushed, collapsing in on itself while being sucked into a black hole. Or exploding as it got pulled into a stars gravity. If they survived it…what would she be up against? Just how large was the Collector threat? Being outnumbered was never a threat to Shepard, but everyone had their limits.

She was a war hero, no doubt in his mind. But she was still human. She made mistakes, she had weak spots. Because of her accomplishments everyone wanted to put her on a pedestal, make her out to be some immortal symbol. All he wanted…was to see her again.

He was back in his apartment, packing a bag and watching his terminal. He had tried to send another message, just asking her to let him know when she made it back. The extranet bounced it back to him, they couldn't find the recipient.

He got on a transport vessel going to Illium. From there he'd get another ship to take him to Omega. If there was a shot in hell that she could make it there, there was another one that she could make it back. He had doubted her on Horizon, suggesting that Cerberus was using the Reaper threat to manipulate her. He wasn't going to doubt her this time by losing hope.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Liara T'Soni didn't miss that Alenko was on his way to Illium, and after the disturbing message from Shepard she had a feeling it was connected. The asari Shepard wanted found was gone from Illium, and Liara felt doubtful that she could be found again. She would try in her spare time, she had her contacts looking with limited information and had others whispering that Shepard was looking for old Noveria contacts.

Alenko was surprised to see Liara when he got off the transport, they hadn't seen each other after the Normandy was destroyed but he recognized her immediately over the other asari.

"It is good to see you again, Kaiden," she said politely.

"Hey, Liara…uh, what are you doing here?" he asked.

"Hm, when I discovered you were on your way to Illium I assumed you were on your way to see me…my mistake, I guess," she frowned.

"Sorry, I didn't even know you were here," he said. "It is nice to see you again, though. How are you?"

"Busy," she admitted. "But since you are here...have you been contacted by an asari working for the queen from Noveria?"

Kaiden's eyes widened, "What? The…"

"Be careful what you say on Illium," she interrupted him. "Yes, the queen still lives. Apparently she contacted Andy through an asari messenger here on Illium, and Andy needed to get a message back to her. Unfortunate, but since you are aware if you are ever approached regarding it…I must know."

"Andy gave you a…mission?" Kaiden asked.

Liara smiled, "Not a mission, a request from an old friend. It was cryptically urgent, however."

Kaiden nodded, "Seems like she was watching herself, wanting to take care of unfinished business while not giving away too much to Cerberus."

Liara nodded, "It is as I feared, then. She came to me, shortly after forcing back the Collectors on Horizon, and asked for my assistance. If I didn't have my own pressing situation I would have joined her. I did my best to find a few good agents for her, though. Trustworthy. I have faith in her abilities…but that she sent me a message for help concerns me."

Kaiden nodded, "I have to go, I'm on the next ship to Omega. I'm going to stay there…if they make it back I want to know, and that would be the closest station for them when they return."

Liara nodded, "Smart thinking. I have contacts there, perhaps I will reach out to them so I can stay informed. Do be careful while you are there, though. Omega is dangerous…but you should be fine."

One day after receiving the message Kaiden was in Omega. He had never been there, it was deep enough in the Terminus Systems that he didn't go there for the Alliance and it had never appealed to him in a personal way. He rented a room, hacked into the radio for the docking station so he could listen, and read through the data Anderson had let him copy.

Joker was moving the Normandy gently so he could intercept Shepard's team, and strapped on his mask and hobbled to the airlock. The rest of the crew was still in the shuttle bay (except for Mordin who had come back early with the rescued crew and he was treating each of them medically). He grabbed the assault rifle Jacob had given him for 'just in case' and opened the port-side door. "We're coming in hot!" Shepard warned them, that base was going to go boom in less than a minute. For as well as things were going, he had a bad feeling. He saw them, running up a tunnel that opened to the outside of the base. The Normandy was as close to the platforms as it could be, a short jump and they were in.

The complexity of the base had required splitting up the group. Shepard had ordered most of her team to defend a door to keep Collectors from overwhelming her while she set the bomb, taking only Thane and Jack to watch her back. Once the bomb had been planted she ordered the rest of the team to abandon their position, which meant they had a _lot_ of Collectors going after them now.

"Go! Go!" Shepard ordered her team, turning to shoot, bullets flying out of her pistol until it clicked. "Shit!" She screamed, throwing it at a Collector and turning to run again.

Thane reached the end of the platform first, jumping gracefully and landing hard in the Normandy. Jack wasn't far behind him, and she let out a cry as she took a jump, her arms out so Thane could grab her and pull her in with him.

"Shepard!" Joker shouted, firing the assault rifle, tearing down some Collectors to give her more room. He could see she was getting hit, her shield flashing with each hit and it was flashing like a slot machine after the jackpot. There was a rumble from within the base, and massive debris started crashing down from above them.

"No!" Jack shouted as the platform just three feet away from the ship fell away.

"EDI!" Joker shouted even as EDI piloted the Normandy gently closer to the remaining platform.

Shepard was almost there, though, and her shield gave one last pulse before it finally died. The Normandy was fifteen feet away from the edge now. Her face grimaced as she leapt, her face falling as she realized she wasn't going to make it, her arms flailing and reaching out.

Her hands barely grabbed the bottom of the doorway, and her body swinging below it nearly caused her to lose it.

"AH!" She screamed as bullets from the Collectors still fired at her, breaking through her armor.

"Come on, Commander, you aren't doing this to me again!" Joker said, grabbing her left hand as it slid away.

Jack grabbed her right arm, "No one left behind," she said, pulling her in as the Collectors continued to shoot.

"EDI! Get us out of here!" Joker shouted, firing off a few more rounds before the door closed.

Thane helped Joker get back to the cockpit quickly while Jack worked on pulling Shepard out of her armor outside of the airlock. "Shit, you are bleeding! A lot!"

Shepard was breathing hard, and Jack wasn't sure if it was because of getting hit or from running for her life.

"Everyone hold on, we're getting the hell out of here!" Joker announced.

"MEDIC!" Jack shrieked.

Thane and Joker both turned.

"We need some help up here!" Joker shouted in the intercom. "Shepard is down! Shepard. Is. Down! Thane, get back there and help I need to get us out of here! Don't you dare die on me, Shepard! We did not survive for you to die, damn you!"

Joker engaged the FTL drive, outrunning the blast of the Collector base and heading back to the dangerous debris field and back to the Relay.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

"This is Normandy SR-2 requesting permission to dock for repairs," was heard on the radio, and Kaiden sat up. He had been drifting to sleep, even though he had been fighting it, and wasn't sure if he had heard correctly.

"You are clear, Normandy," was said next. "Aria is requiring a meeting with your commander before you have access to do repairs…or leave."

His heart pounded in his chest as he got up, pulling on his shirt and leaving his room and booking it to the dock.

"You have a lot of nerve coming back here," Aria was saying to Miranda.

Miranda stared at the asari, not afraid, "Trust me, if we were positive our ship could get us to Illium we would have gone there, first. Your trashed station was the best we could do, Aria. Let us do what we have to and we're gone."

"Oh, you'll be gone, but you'll be lucky if I…"

"You're threatening me?" Miranda laughed.

"Why am I even talking to you? Where is Shepard, I want to talk to her and then I'm going to _crush_ her."

"Like to see you try, smurf," Jack said calmly. "Count yourself among the lucky criminals that Shepard has met and left alive. If you don't, you won't stay alive."

Aria looked at Jack fiercely, "I am a Matriarch, you puny…"

Jack took a step forward, "Try me, cupcake. This place is about due for a new leader and my home just got a few holes punched in it, I could move right in here."

"As soon as you are patched up I want you gone. I catch another Cerberus ship within targeting range of Omega again I shoot first, ask questions later," Aria warned.

Miranda let out a relieved breath as Aria retreated and turned to Jack, "Good job intimidating her."

"Wasn't joking, I could see myself doing her job," Jack smirked.

"We need to get those medical supplies, we've wasted enough time. Come on," Miranda said.

Jack was looking past her, "What's Alliance doing here?"

Miranda followed her gaze, seeing Kaiden walking slowly towards them.

"Shit," Miranda muttered. She had to get to Mordin's old clinic, get the supplies and get back before Aria decided to make things ugly. Jack hadn't been on Omega before, she didn't know the fastest way there and back. "Uh…handle it, time is not on our side."

Jack opened her mouth to argue but Miranda was already running. Kaiden glanced at her, but kept moving towards Jack. "Looks like you guys ran into some trouble."

Jack folded her arms across her chest and gave him a tough look, "Yeah, so?"

"Everyone make it?"

Jack shrugged, "Who wants to know?"

"I do," he said, his impatience showing through his tone.

Jack looked him over, her face still hard and tough, and wondered just what Shepard saw in him. He seemed like a total square, perfect posture…stiff. She was a woman of action and danger and crazy as hell. He seemed too…_safe_ for someone like her. But she had been there when they met on Horizon, saw his picture on her desk when she snuck into Shepard cabin. "How'd you know we'd come here?"

"I didn't…not for sure. Seemed best place if I wanted to catch anyone coming out of that Relay, though. I just want to know if…if she made it." He looked at Jack, his face hard, ready for the worst news, but he couldn't keep it much longer. The past day he had been jerking himself from anxious hope to hopeless dread, and if he didn't know for sure soon he felt like he might go crazy.

"Dr. Chakwas? I think she's waking up," a soft voice said.

Shepard slowly started opening her eyes, blinking as the bright lights broke through the darkness. She closed them, pulling her left hand from someone else's and covering her eyes with her hand, her face grimacing with the movement.

"Sensitivity to light is side affect," Mordin said. "Will pass."

Shepard let out a groan, "Jesus Christ, can't you guys just let a woman die? Holy hell, this hurts."

"You're welcome," Miranda snapped. "I'll have you know we ran through the store of medi-gel just to keep you from bleeding out."

"Everyone make it back alright?" Shepard asked.

"All crew accounted for," EDI said.

"Damage report?" Shepard asked next.

"Cargo hold still has those holes, but the kinetic barriers will hold. Drive core has been through hell, we're worried going through the Relay may have been too much for it," Miranda said.

"Where are we?" Shepard asked.

"Docked at Omega," EDI answered.

"EDI! I asked…" Miranda started.

"Oh fuck," Shepard said, moving to sit up and falling back down as pain streaked up her back into her right shoulder. "FUCK!"

"Stay still!" Chakwas said. "You need to rest, you are still healing."

Shepard took a few shallow breaths, "I'm in no shape to deal with Aria."

"You don't have to worry about her," Miranda said confidently. "The rest of the team is standing guard outside the dock."

"Good job," Shepard said through painful gasps. "Everyone, good job."

"We're going to leave you alone," Miranda said.

"Yes, rest. Heal. I'll be back in to check on you soon," Chakwas said.

Shepard listened to them walking out, and heard the door slide shut behind them. But she heard someone breathing next to her. She took her hand away from her eyes, squeezing her eyes to the light. She slowly squinted, a blurry face sitting not far away from her.

His face was tense, but…he was there. "Kaiden?" she muttered.

He smiled a bit, and took her hand as she reached out to him, "Just…stay still. Chakwas told me it was bad. Medi-gel isn't a cure all, but you'll be back on your feet soon enough."

Slowly her eyes adjusted to the light, aching from it but she didn't close them to ease the pain, "What are you doing here, Kaiden?"

"Anderson and I figured out your message," he said. "I came to Omega to…to be here if you made it back."

"I knew he'd figure it out," she said with a soft smile. "But…why come here? At all?"

Kaiden looked at her sadly, "Maybe I misunderstood your message…because…I thought it meant that…maybe you still felt something for me."

She gripped his hand as he went to pull it away, "Kaiden, I do. I…I'll never quite understand how hard it was for you, those two years. If after all this time if we can still be together, go back how we were…I don't know if it's possible. If you want to try, I'm willing but I don't want you to think you have to."

His other hand moved up to touch her face gently, and he leaned forward to kiss her softly, careful not to agitate any of her injuries.

Joker grabbed a pretzel and pointed at the screen, "You see, EDI, that right there is a kiss. Human thing. We call this first base."

"I am aware of human interactions, Jeff," EDI said in her monotone. "I also understand what we are doing is spying, invasion of privacy, and Shepard would not be pleased if she discovers that you are doing so."

Joker put his hands up in frustration as EDI deactivated the monitor, "Ah, come on! This is how a reunion is supposed happen! Can we at least keep the audio?"


End file.
